Latest news with #BarbaraBallard
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House committee examines state's elevated error rate in processing food aid applications
Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, Rep. Kristey Williams, R-Augusta, and Rep. Bob Lewis, R-Garden City, take part in the first meeting of the House Select Committee on Government Oversight on Wednesday at the Capitol. The inaugural meeting of the 13-member committee focused on financial issues tied to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, serving nearly 100,000 households in Kansas. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — The payment error rate for Kansas' determination of eligibility for food assistance grew to more than 12% in 2023 to exceed the national average and surpass levels in four state's neighboring Kansas. The U.S. average that year was 11.6% and the border states ranged from 7% in Nebraska, 8.6% in Colorado, 10.5% in Missouri and 10.6% in Oklahoma. Kansas' problem with processing applications from low-income families, older adults and people with disabilities in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, was brought to the attention of Gov. Laura Kelly in a February 2024 letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Kelly administration received another letter in early April from the USDA pointing to SNAP processing deficiencies in Kansas. The notices took issue with the state's SNAP payment error rate as well as the timeliness of application processing and procedural error rates that failed to comply with basic federal requirements. State officials told the House Select Committee on Government Oversight the error rate in terms of eligibility and benefit determinations for SNAP ranged from 3.8% to 7.1% from 2017 to 2019. In each of those three years the state outperformed the national average. USDA didn't track state-by-state performance in 2020 and 2021 due to distortions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, officials with the Kansas Department for Children and Families, which administers SNAP statewide, said the payment error rate climbed to 12% in 2023 before improving to 10.1% in 2024 and slumping to 11.6% in 2025. 'I know government is different from business, but typically a payment error is pretty critical,' said Rep. Francis Awerkamp, a St. Marys Republican. 'Most businesses, as far accounts payable, your error rate you kind of want it to be around zero. This is a $400 million-plus program looking at an 11% error rate. From my perspective, that is a high percentage.' Carla Whiteside-Hicks, director of economic and employment services for DCF, said the rate was most frequently tied to DCF personnel making data entry mistakes when handling applications for SNAP. For example, she said, mistakes were made in calculation of an applicant's income or rent. Another area in which inaccuracies surfaced was in the interpretation of self-employment income by an applicant, she said. 'Those are the three that are the most common,' said Whiteside-Hicks, who would prefer the error rate stabilized at 3%. 'As they enter this data — this is an application form where I'm asking questions and entering data — we're making errors on some of the most basic elements of the application such as income, rent and self-employment,' Awerkamp said. 'How would you approach correcting these errors?' Whiteside-Hicks said DCF's effort to minimize mistakes centered on improving training of staff and upgrading training materials used by about 200 state workers responsible for processing SNAP applications. She said regional offices involved in the application process had historically struggled to hire staff. 'It takes at least a year to become proficient as an eligibility worker,' Whiteside-Hicks said. Rep. Will Carpenter, R-El Dorado, said the status report on processing SNAP applications should prompt the Legislature to examine how other states dealt with processing requests for food aid. 'Are there states that contract their eligibility out as a piece versus having in-house employees?' he said. Tanya Keys, deputy secretary at DCF, told legislators SNAP provided a monthly benefit that averaged $189 per person or $392 per family in Kansas. As of last year, Kansas provided SNAP benefits to 97,000 households. In terms of eligibility for SNAP, she said, Kansas had placed in law a part-time work requirement or training participation requirement for adults 18 to 54 without children. That criteria could be waived for an adult caring for children, a person with a disability or an individual at least 60 years of age. Keys said one-third of SNAP participants in Kansas were enrolled in the program for less than six months and two-thirds were in the program less than one year. House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, authorized the House Select Committee on Government Oversight to monitor the functioning, transparency and accountability of government agencies. He granted the 13-member committee subpoena power to investigate potential misconduct. 'This committee's work will help ensure that public funds are used efficiently and that government actions align with the best interests of the citizens of Kansas,' Hawkins said. During the first meeting of the committee on Wednesday at the Capitol, Augusta GOP Rep. Kristey Williams, chair of the bipartisan panel, said topics of inquiry weren't set in stone. 'We are not here to create drafts of bills, but we are here to really shine a light on any issues that are of high importance,' she said.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
On reflection, Kansas House reverses course to override governor on 15 budget vetoes
Lawrence Democratic Rep. Barbara Ballard, center in red, and Manhattan Democratic Rep. Sydney Carlin, seated left, were among House members who changed their "no" vote to "yes" on a package of 15 overrides of budget vetoes issued by Gov. Laura Kelly. On Friday, Ballard and Carlin joined four other House members in support of overrides requiring a two-thirds majority vote. The House agreed to override half the budget vetoes sought by the Senate. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — Three Republicans and three Democrats in the House dropped their opposition Friday to overriding Gov. Laura Kelly on 15 budget vetoes to meet the Senate halfway toward restoration of spending earmarks on the verge of being deleted from the appropriations bill. Kelly got the ball rolling by making more than 30 line-item vetoes in Senate Bill 125 — the mega-budget bill that would keep state government running through the next fiscal year and featured a Christmas-tree assortment of expenditures sought by lobbyists and special-interest organizations. The Senate voted to reject all of Kelly's budget vetoes, while the House pulled together a list of 15 priority vetoes it would consider overriding. In a stunner Thursday, the GOP-led House rejected the scaled-down package and opened the door to sustaining each of the governor's budget vetoes. Rep. Charlette Esau, an Olathe Republican, was among GOP lawmakers who initially voted with Democrats to prevent the House from securing the two-thirds majority necessary to override the governor's budget vetoes. She returned to the Capitol on Friday convinced she had made a mistake, and offered a motion to reconsider the House's rejection of the 15-item list. The House responded by voting 88-34 to accept the override package. The two-thirds majority in the House was reached after six lawmakers flipped their votes. Those changing positions were Democrats Barbara Ballard of Lawrence, Sydney Carlin of Manhattan and KC Ohaebosim of Wichita along with Republicans Brian Bergkamp of Wichita, Steve Huebert of Valley Center and Esau. Rep. Brandon Woodard, the Democratic leader in the House, said he appreciated the bipartisan coalition that voted 82-42 on Thursday to block the budget overrides. He said he was disappointed advocates and lobbyists were able to convince lawmakers to change their votes. 'I am disappointed, though not surprised, by the overnight decision change to reconsider the motion to override the governor's budget line-item vetoes,' Woodard said. 'It is fiscally irresponsible to bundle these line items together and push them through under pressure from GOP leadership and outside special interests. The voices of Kansans — and the judgment of their elected representatives —should never be overshadowed by external political agendas.' Rep. Brett Fairchild, a Republican from St. John, refused to change his vote against the 15-piece veto bundle in the House. He said there were individual vetoes that he'd enthusiastically vote to reverse, but he rejected the bundling of veto overrides. Traditionally, the House and Senate voted on vetoes one at a time. 'It sends a message to the governor that we don't even want her to find waste and fraud in the budgets,' Fairchild said. Esau said she was most concerned about loss of a $1 million earmarked for O'Connell Children's Shelter in Lawrence, which works with children dealing with trauma and might be a risk to themselves or others. She said funding for the shelter could help children in the foster care system not ready to be placed with a family in a home. 'They (families) don't have the ability to handle kids that need to be in a specific location getting treatment,' Esau said. Kelly said she vetoed the appropriation because language in the bill allocating tax dollars to O'Connell created a no-bid contract that circumvented the state's regular grant review process necessary to ensure 'services provided are the bet quality at the best price.' The reversal of fortune in the House saved a $3 million appropriation to the 'pregnancy compassion awareness program' advocated by Kansans for Life and other organizations opposed to abortion. The program, housed in the office of the state treasurer and previously referred to as the 'pregnancy crisis' program, was authorized as an alternative to traditional health clinics or family-planning centers. The governor's veto message said she viewed the Legislature's decision to place the program in the office of the state treasurer as 'inappropriate and simply politically motivated.' 'There is no guarantee this funding is going to be directed to expenditures for moms and babies. It more or less has no strings attached,' said Rep. Jo Ella Hoye, D-Lenexa. The Legislature's work on veto overrides preserved bonding authority for construction of a $130 million veterinary diagnostic laboratory on the campus of Kansas State University. It restored $500,000 for unmanned aircraft research at Wichita State University and $500,000 for aviation research at the Salina campus of Kansas State. The package retained a mandate championed by Sen. Virgil Peck, R-Havana, to assess a monthly rental fee of $1 per square foot for office space used by journalists in the Capitol. The Kansas Reflector wasn't assigned office space at the statehouse, but rents private office space in Topeka. Kelly had vetoed the rental fee and recommended the Legislature 'look for ways to make the lawmaking process more transparent.' The Legislature overrode Kelly's veto of a provision that forbid the Kansas Lottery from negotiating on contract renewals with casinos operating sports gambling in Kansas. Veto action of legislators allocated $1.5 million to a new program in the state treasurer's office to attract talented workers to the state. The maneuver defunded a comparable Kansas Department of Commerce program known as 'Love, Kansas,' touted by Lt. Gov. David Toland. 'It is highly inefficient to create a new, unvetted program with no guardrails in an agency that has nothing to do with workforce development or talent attraction,' Kelly said. In addition, the override included a requirement the Kansas Arts Commission dedicate 60% of grants to counties with a population of less than 85,000 people. Work of the Legislature retained a double-appropriation to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment of $250,000 and $96,000 for prevention of tuberculosis. Lawmakers held onto allocation of $263,000 to various Kansas health facilities for cerebral palsy research. Also, the votes reversed Kelly's veto of $375,000 for interpreter services for individuals who were deaf or had hearing challenges. The voting resulted in preservation of a provision that directed the Kansas Highway Patrol to collaborate with a third-party entity to build an aviation hangar in Wichita that would be leased to KHP. Originally, KPH requested funding to buy a hangar. Kelly said she vetoed it because a lease would cost the state more in the long run. Voting by the House and Senate kept in place an estimated $2 million that would be spent to purchase software that would diagram school buildings in preparation for emergency calls to law enforcement officers. The governor said she vetoed the expenditure because the state's 911 agency didn't request the funding and reported that it didn't have the personnel capacity to enact the program. Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat who serves on the Kansas 911 Coordinating Council, said the earmark was the result of a lobbyist working to please clients that marketed the mapping software. He said the state was engaged in a pilot project to examine possible use of mapping technology, but that assessment wasn't completed. 'If you want to know how taxpayer money gets wasted and how budgets get inflated, here's a prime example,' Carmichael said.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas Senate budget ties $4 million to ending DEI, use of preferred pronouns in emails
Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, pressed for clarification of a Senate amendment to the House's budget bill freezing $4 million for the administration of Gov. Laura Kelly until she certified no executive branch agency retained diversity, equity and inclusion programs or staff and until the governor affirmed executive branch workers were no longer attaching preferred pronouns to emails. (Kansas Reflector screen capture from Legislature's YouTube channel) TOPEKA — The Kansas Senate's budget committee wants to hold $4 million hostage from the administration of Gov. Laura Kelly until state agencies proved they eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion jobs and programs as well as ended use of gender-affirming pronouns in signature blocks of employee emails. The Senate Ways and Means Committee has been working since February on amendments to the budget plan developed by the House Appropriations Committee and approved by the full House on a vote of 83-36. In the process, senators responsible for the budget agreed to leverage $4 million in state funding to speed demise of DEI programs and staff within state government. A hold on the money would be lifted when the Kelly administration certified DEI had been terminated and when employees in the executive branch and universities in the Kansas Board of Regents system stopped listing preferred gender pronouns in email correspondence. Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, said she was puzzled by the Senate budget committee's approach to DEI. 'They're eliminating all the positions? They're eliminating all the programs?' said Ballard, who is Black and serves on the House budget committee. 'Are they getting fired? Eliminate says it's not there.' Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican and colleague of Ballard's on the House budget committee, said the Senate intended to make certain state government agencies weren't playing games with the Legislature's directive to erase DEI. 'If they have DEI positions and they've just renamed those DEI positions, they really need to substantiate or verify that they're not just changing titles,' Williams said. Dylan Dear, a fiscal analyst with the Kansas Legislative Research Department, said the blueprint crafted by the Senate committee also would direct full-time executive branch employees under direction of the Democratic governor to 'perform their duties in their assigned state office, facility or field location' except during periods of authorized travel. The Senate committee didn't want the no-work-at-home requirement to apply to staff of the legislative and judicial branches of state government nor to Republican-led offices of attorney general, insurance commissioner, secretary of state and state treasurer. The Senate budget panel deleted from House Bill 2007 a provision that would rename the Docking State Office Building in Topeka in honor of the late U.S. Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kansas. The building across the street from Capitol was originally named for the late Democratic Gov. Robert Docking. The structure was partially demolished and the rebuilding project has been mostly completed. Dole has a U.S federal courthouse in Kansas City, Kansas, named for him as well as structures at University of Kansas, Washburn University and Kansas State University. Senators added to the House bill a supplemental appropriation of $21 million to be shared by Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University and Pittsburg State University. The Senate's version of the budget would allocate $750,000 to a feasibility study of creating a dental school with FHSU. The Senate amendments to the House budget would allow $23 million in bonding for KSU building projects for animal, agronomy and grain science research. KU would be authorized to issue $100 million in bonds for development of the 11th and Mississippi streets project next to the Jayhawks' football stadium. And, Wichita State University would have access to $60 million in bonds for a campus stadium project. In addition, the Kansas Highway Patrol would be allowed to devote $55 million to relocation of the Troop C headquarters in Salina. KHP would be able to enter into a contract on a build-to-lease hangar in Wichita rather than follow the House's idea of spending $7 million for a hangar. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation would be given permission to issue $100 million in bonds for construction of a new KBI headquarters in Topeka. Amendments to the House bill included addition of $4 million to support the Kansas Pregnancy Compassion Awareness Program, which would provide women facing unplanned pregnancies incentive to avoid an abortion. The Senate committee deleted $830,000 for renovation of a homeless shelter in Liberal, but added $2.5 million for a child care pilot program with Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
